Fic: Gossamer (10/18)
Mar. 15th, 2012 12:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sara_wolfTitle: Gossamer
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: "Paige, you're pregnant." Three weeks after her parents' death, Paige receives some surprising news. What she decides next will change the course of history, not only her own, but that of the family she doesn't even know exists...
*****
"Push, push, push-"
Paige glared at the overly-cheerful doctor egging her on as she bore down, her hands fisting tightly in the sheets of the hospital bed she was lying on. She clenched her jaw, trying to ride out the pain. When it passed, she relaxed back against the pillows, slowly uncurling her fingers and letting out a shaky breath.
"Good job!" Doctor Dyers chirped, beaming at her, and Paige had to force herself not to roll her eyes.
Dyers' hyperactive state, aside, the woman had arrived from the clinic almost at the same time as Paige, and she'd nothing but completely professional and attentive. She was just so insufferably cheerful.
'If Pax is healthy,' Paige thought, closing her eyes as she slumped back against the pillows, 'she can turn cartwheels around the room, for all I care.'
"Paige, I need to step out for a moment," Dyers told her, "but I'll be back in just a second, all right?"
Paige cracked open an eye, flapping a hand at the older woman in acknowledgement. The room fell into silence as Dyers left, and Paige sighed in relief. She let herself drift off, listening to the sounds of the hospital outside her door, but she was jolted out of her dazed state when she sensed someone sitting down in the seat beside her bed.
Paige opened her eyes, expecting to see Julie, Dave, or even Henry sitting beside her. The three of them had been drifting in and out of her room ever since she'd been admitted to the hospital, and she'd finally kicked them all out about half an hour earlier, ordering them to go get something to eat. And, it wouldn't have surprised her to find that one, or all of them, was back to hovering over her, anxiously.
But, to her surprise, Nick was sitting by her bed, his shoulders slumped and his head hanging. There were lines on his face that she didn't remember seeing before, and he looked exhausted.
"Nick?" she asked, softly, and he bolted upright, staring at her in shock.
"Paige," he said, blinking at her, owlishly. "You're awake. I thought you were asleep."
"Nah," Paige told him. Patting her stomach, fondly, she added, "When she's not trying to come out the normal way, she seems determined to try and kick her way out. She moves every time I get comfortable, and then I'm awake, again."
"This is really happening, isn't it?" Nick asked, quietly, a slow smile curving his lips. "We're going to meet our daughter. It's finally starting to seem real, you know?"
"It's seemed pretty real for a while, actually," Paige said, dryly, and Nick had the good grace to look sheepish. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned, when he fell silent, again, a strange look on his eyes.
"I've been talking with my mother," Nick began, and Paige winced, sympathetically. Cheryl could put a damper on anyone's day. "We argued," Nick told her. "She wants me to follow in Duncan's footsteps, go into law."
"Do you want to?" Paige asked, carefully, feeling eerily like she was echoing the conversation that she'd had with Henry.
"I don't know what I want," Nick said, a frustrated tone in his voice. He dragged a hand through his hair, making it stand up on end. "I think we should move," he said, abruptly, and Paige stared at him in shock.
"Now?" she asked, incredulously, and Nick snorted out a laugh.
"After the baby is born," he elaborated. "I think we should move out of San Francisco, maybe even California."
"And where would we go?" Paige asked, in disbelief.
"New York, maybe," Nick suggested, waving his hand around for emphasis. "Florida, Washington DC, Paris-"
"As in France?" Paige asked, doubtfully, and Nick shrugged, slumping back against the back of his chair. "Nick, we're broke, we're going to be taking care of a newborn baby, and neither of us is even eighteen, yet."
"So?" Nick muttered, mulishly. "We'd find a way to make it work."
"I'd be leaving my entire family behind," Paige reminded him, gently. "So would you."
"That's kind of the point," Nick said, bluntly. "Paige-"
He broke off, sounding even more frustrated. There was an almost lost look in his eyes, and Paige had the feeling that she was seeing a side of him that he very rarely revealed to anyone else.
"If we stay here," Nick began, quietly, "then my mother will want to be involved with the baby. She'll push and push until we lose our voices fighting with her, until her way of life is imposed on our child."
"We won't let her," Paige said, bristling at the thought of Cheryl trying to take over her baby's life.
"You don't understand," Nick said, pleadingly. "She's relentless. She's like a pit bull; she just won't let go of something she wants, and she wants our baby." Shaking his head, he added, "The way I grew up, everything was always about loyalty, and dedication, and status, and I don't want that kind of life for our baby. I don't want Pax to grow up like that; I want her to have a better life than I did."
Paige looked at him, curiously, wondering what he could have been talking about. From what she understood, Nick had led a privileged life – the best schools, never wanting for money. Sure, his family could be overbearing at times, but weren't all families like that at times?
'But, I guess a golden cage is still a cage,' she thought, after a moment. 'And, I hate his mother. Why would I be pushing for him to be on good terms with her? Things would be easier if she wasn't involved; Nick and I could finally breathe and get to know one another.'
"Do you really want to leave San Francisco?" she asked, quietly, and Nick shrugged, looking defeated.
"Do you really want to stay?" he countered, just as quietly, and Paige sighed.
"We don't have to decide anything right now," she reminded him. "Let's just get through the rest of today. Once Pax is born, we'll figure out the rest."
Nick nodded, some of the shadows leaving his eyes as he smiled at her.
"I'm sorry that I've been so distant, lately," he said, as he reached out and took her hand, twining their fingers together. "With everything that's been happening, lately, well – I remember promising you once that I was going to be the best father I could. And, I intend to live up to that promise."
"Thank you," Paige told him, quietly. The words felt inadequate, but she didn't really know what else to say.
Doctor Dyers bustled back into the room, then, saving her from having to think of anything else to say. The woman smiled when she saw Nick sitting beside her bed.
"And, you must be the proud daddy," she cooed, and Nick shot Paige an incredulous look.
Paige felt her lips quirking into an answering grin, and she fought the impulse to laugh at the stunned look on Nick's face.
"Yes," Nick finally answered, fighting a grin of his own, "I'm the baby's father."
"You both must be so happy," Doctor Dyers went on, and Nick nodded.
"I am," he said, quietly, and he sounded sincere for the first time since Paige had told him the news of her pregnancy.
"Well, Paige," Doctor Dyers went on, checking the various monitors she was hooked up to, "have you had any more contractions?"
"A couple small ones," Paige told her. "Nothing as bad as that episode in the elevator," she added, and for some reason, a guilty look flashed across Nick's face at her words.
"Do you feel up to pushing, again?" Doctor Dyers asked, and Paige nodded, eagerly. "We'll have to wait for another big contraction," Dyers went on, "but you're fully dilated, and I think it won't be very long, now."
"That's great," Paige said, excitement rushing through her as she glanced over at Nick. "We're going to see our daughter."
Nearly ten minutes later, another big contraction started, and Paige squeezed Nick's hand as she pushed. She could hear Nick's quiet voice as he murmured nonsense in her ear, and she clung to his soothing words.
At Doctor Dyers' encouragement, she kept pushing. The pain built to an almost unbearable level, but she wasn't about to back down, now. Not when she was so close to seeing her baby.
"Just a little bit more," Nick whispered, and Paige nodded, smiling gratefully at him when he wiped away the sweat rolling into her eyes.
"Again," Doctor Dyers instructed, and Paige bore down one final time.
The pain peaked, and then the pressure was abruptly gone. As she slumped back against the pillows, she heard a weak cry, and she beamed up at Nick.
"Our baby girl," she said, happily, and he nodded, speechless, as he wiped away a tear from his eye.
The nurse was busy with Pax on the far side of the room, and Paige squirmed, impatiently, wanting nothing more than to see her daughter. A few minutes later, she finally got her wish as the nurse crossed the room to stand beside the bed, Pax held safely in her arms.
"Here you are, Mom," she said, quietly, bending down to carefully place Pax in Paige's arms.
Paige instinctively curled her arms around Pax, looking down at her daughter in amazement.
"Hello, sweetheart," she murmured, quietly, feeling a grin split her face. "We've been waiting to meet you."
She sat up, with Nick's help, leaning back against the pillows as she beamed down at her daughter.
"She's perfect," Paige said, quietly, smiling happily at Nick, who was staring at Pax with a stunned look on his face.
"Yes, she is," Nick agreed, brushing a finger lightly over the baby's cheek. "Yes, she is."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was nearly midnight when a noise woke her up. Paige came awake, abruptly, blinking in the dim light of the room, confused as to what could have disturbed her. Then, she saw Henry standing awkwardly in the doorway, and she smiled.
"Hey," she said, softly, as he came into the room, "what are you still doing here?"
"I wanted to see you and the baby," Henry confessed, his voice quiet. "It seems like every time I tried to come in, earlier, the room was completely full."
"Yeah," Paige said, fondly, "Dave and Julie have been pretty excited to see Pax. I didn't think I was ever going to convince them to go home." Frowning slightly, she added, "How did you manage to sneak past the nurses? They're pretty strict about visiting hours."
"I'm very charming," Henry countered, with a grin, and Paige rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"You're something," she told him, affectionately. "Did you want to hold Pax?"
"Isn't she sleeping?" Henry asked, even as he was drawn to the plastic crib that the baby was lying in. "I don't want to wake her up."
"She'll be up soon, anyway," Paige replied. "She's going to want to eat pretty soon."
As if the mere idea of food had been enough to wake her, Pax opened her eyes, slowly. She looked straight up at him, blinking her bright green eyes as she let out a quiet whimper.
"Give her here," Paige told Henry, who looked dubiously from her to the baby. "She's got one hell of a set of lungs on her; if she doesn't get food when she wants it, she'll scream loud enough to bring down the hospital."
Henry very visibly gulped, staring nervously down at the baby. Then, as carefully as if he was reaching for a live bomb, he picked Pax up. Cradling her against his chest, he made his way slowly to the side of Paige's bed. There was a terrified expression on his face, but he visibly relaxed once he was sitting in the chair beside her bed.
"Do you want to feed her?" Paige asked, and Henry looked at her in confusion.
"Don't you have to-" he started, gesturing vaguely in the direction of her chest, and Paige chuckled.
"I pumped earlier," she explained. "The nurses have her milk in a fridge, and there's a nurse out there that I swear is psychic. She should be here –" When a woman in dark blue scrubs appeared in the doorway, a bottle in her hand, Paige grinned. "Now," she finished. "Good timing," she added, to the woman. "She just woke up."
"Call me if you need any help putting her back to sleep," the woman said, handing Paige the bottle, and then she disappeared.
"Well?" Paige offered, holding the bottle out to Henry, and he took it, hesitantly.
"Are you sure?" he asked, and Paige nodded.
"She looks comfortable with you," she told him, watching as he guided the bottle into Paige's eager mouth. "And, you look pretty comfortable with her," she teased, gently, smiling when he blushed.
"She's beautiful," he murmured, quietly, an awestruck expression on his face as he stared down at the baby. "She's so tiny, and perfect."
"Two minutes, and she's already got you wrapped around her little finger," Paige teased him.
"Just like her mom," Henry shot back, grinning at her. "She looks just like you, Paige."
"She's unbelievable," Paige said, as she beamed at her daughter. "She's really mine."
"She's amazing," Henry told her, an unmistakable note of pride in his voice.
Continued here
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: "Paige, you're pregnant." Three weeks after her parents' death, Paige receives some surprising news. What she decides next will change the course of history, not only her own, but that of the family she doesn't even know exists...
*****
"Push, push, push-"
Paige glared at the overly-cheerful doctor egging her on as she bore down, her hands fisting tightly in the sheets of the hospital bed she was lying on. She clenched her jaw, trying to ride out the pain. When it passed, she relaxed back against the pillows, slowly uncurling her fingers and letting out a shaky breath.
"Good job!" Doctor Dyers chirped, beaming at her, and Paige had to force herself not to roll her eyes.
Dyers' hyperactive state, aside, the woman had arrived from the clinic almost at the same time as Paige, and she'd nothing but completely professional and attentive. She was just so insufferably cheerful.
'If Pax is healthy,' Paige thought, closing her eyes as she slumped back against the pillows, 'she can turn cartwheels around the room, for all I care.'
"Paige, I need to step out for a moment," Dyers told her, "but I'll be back in just a second, all right?"
Paige cracked open an eye, flapping a hand at the older woman in acknowledgement. The room fell into silence as Dyers left, and Paige sighed in relief. She let herself drift off, listening to the sounds of the hospital outside her door, but she was jolted out of her dazed state when she sensed someone sitting down in the seat beside her bed.
Paige opened her eyes, expecting to see Julie, Dave, or even Henry sitting beside her. The three of them had been drifting in and out of her room ever since she'd been admitted to the hospital, and she'd finally kicked them all out about half an hour earlier, ordering them to go get something to eat. And, it wouldn't have surprised her to find that one, or all of them, was back to hovering over her, anxiously.
But, to her surprise, Nick was sitting by her bed, his shoulders slumped and his head hanging. There were lines on his face that she didn't remember seeing before, and he looked exhausted.
"Nick?" she asked, softly, and he bolted upright, staring at her in shock.
"Paige," he said, blinking at her, owlishly. "You're awake. I thought you were asleep."
"Nah," Paige told him. Patting her stomach, fondly, she added, "When she's not trying to come out the normal way, she seems determined to try and kick her way out. She moves every time I get comfortable, and then I'm awake, again."
"This is really happening, isn't it?" Nick asked, quietly, a slow smile curving his lips. "We're going to meet our daughter. It's finally starting to seem real, you know?"
"It's seemed pretty real for a while, actually," Paige said, dryly, and Nick had the good grace to look sheepish. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned, when he fell silent, again, a strange look on his eyes.
"I've been talking with my mother," Nick began, and Paige winced, sympathetically. Cheryl could put a damper on anyone's day. "We argued," Nick told her. "She wants me to follow in Duncan's footsteps, go into law."
"Do you want to?" Paige asked, carefully, feeling eerily like she was echoing the conversation that she'd had with Henry.
"I don't know what I want," Nick said, a frustrated tone in his voice. He dragged a hand through his hair, making it stand up on end. "I think we should move," he said, abruptly, and Paige stared at him in shock.
"Now?" she asked, incredulously, and Nick snorted out a laugh.
"After the baby is born," he elaborated. "I think we should move out of San Francisco, maybe even California."
"And where would we go?" Paige asked, in disbelief.
"New York, maybe," Nick suggested, waving his hand around for emphasis. "Florida, Washington DC, Paris-"
"As in France?" Paige asked, doubtfully, and Nick shrugged, slumping back against the back of his chair. "Nick, we're broke, we're going to be taking care of a newborn baby, and neither of us is even eighteen, yet."
"So?" Nick muttered, mulishly. "We'd find a way to make it work."
"I'd be leaving my entire family behind," Paige reminded him, gently. "So would you."
"That's kind of the point," Nick said, bluntly. "Paige-"
He broke off, sounding even more frustrated. There was an almost lost look in his eyes, and Paige had the feeling that she was seeing a side of him that he very rarely revealed to anyone else.
"If we stay here," Nick began, quietly, "then my mother will want to be involved with the baby. She'll push and push until we lose our voices fighting with her, until her way of life is imposed on our child."
"We won't let her," Paige said, bristling at the thought of Cheryl trying to take over her baby's life.
"You don't understand," Nick said, pleadingly. "She's relentless. She's like a pit bull; she just won't let go of something she wants, and she wants our baby." Shaking his head, he added, "The way I grew up, everything was always about loyalty, and dedication, and status, and I don't want that kind of life for our baby. I don't want Pax to grow up like that; I want her to have a better life than I did."
Paige looked at him, curiously, wondering what he could have been talking about. From what she understood, Nick had led a privileged life – the best schools, never wanting for money. Sure, his family could be overbearing at times, but weren't all families like that at times?
'But, I guess a golden cage is still a cage,' she thought, after a moment. 'And, I hate his mother. Why would I be pushing for him to be on good terms with her? Things would be easier if she wasn't involved; Nick and I could finally breathe and get to know one another.'
"Do you really want to leave San Francisco?" she asked, quietly, and Nick shrugged, looking defeated.
"Do you really want to stay?" he countered, just as quietly, and Paige sighed.
"We don't have to decide anything right now," she reminded him. "Let's just get through the rest of today. Once Pax is born, we'll figure out the rest."
Nick nodded, some of the shadows leaving his eyes as he smiled at her.
"I'm sorry that I've been so distant, lately," he said, as he reached out and took her hand, twining their fingers together. "With everything that's been happening, lately, well – I remember promising you once that I was going to be the best father I could. And, I intend to live up to that promise."
"Thank you," Paige told him, quietly. The words felt inadequate, but she didn't really know what else to say.
Doctor Dyers bustled back into the room, then, saving her from having to think of anything else to say. The woman smiled when she saw Nick sitting beside her bed.
"And, you must be the proud daddy," she cooed, and Nick shot Paige an incredulous look.
Paige felt her lips quirking into an answering grin, and she fought the impulse to laugh at the stunned look on Nick's face.
"Yes," Nick finally answered, fighting a grin of his own, "I'm the baby's father."
"You both must be so happy," Doctor Dyers went on, and Nick nodded.
"I am," he said, quietly, and he sounded sincere for the first time since Paige had told him the news of her pregnancy.
"Well, Paige," Doctor Dyers went on, checking the various monitors she was hooked up to, "have you had any more contractions?"
"A couple small ones," Paige told her. "Nothing as bad as that episode in the elevator," she added, and for some reason, a guilty look flashed across Nick's face at her words.
"Do you feel up to pushing, again?" Doctor Dyers asked, and Paige nodded, eagerly. "We'll have to wait for another big contraction," Dyers went on, "but you're fully dilated, and I think it won't be very long, now."
"That's great," Paige said, excitement rushing through her as she glanced over at Nick. "We're going to see our daughter."
Nearly ten minutes later, another big contraction started, and Paige squeezed Nick's hand as she pushed. She could hear Nick's quiet voice as he murmured nonsense in her ear, and she clung to his soothing words.
At Doctor Dyers' encouragement, she kept pushing. The pain built to an almost unbearable level, but she wasn't about to back down, now. Not when she was so close to seeing her baby.
"Just a little bit more," Nick whispered, and Paige nodded, smiling gratefully at him when he wiped away the sweat rolling into her eyes.
"Again," Doctor Dyers instructed, and Paige bore down one final time.
The pain peaked, and then the pressure was abruptly gone. As she slumped back against the pillows, she heard a weak cry, and she beamed up at Nick.
"Our baby girl," she said, happily, and he nodded, speechless, as he wiped away a tear from his eye.
The nurse was busy with Pax on the far side of the room, and Paige squirmed, impatiently, wanting nothing more than to see her daughter. A few minutes later, she finally got her wish as the nurse crossed the room to stand beside the bed, Pax held safely in her arms.
"Here you are, Mom," she said, quietly, bending down to carefully place Pax in Paige's arms.
Paige instinctively curled her arms around Pax, looking down at her daughter in amazement.
"Hello, sweetheart," she murmured, quietly, feeling a grin split her face. "We've been waiting to meet you."
She sat up, with Nick's help, leaning back against the pillows as she beamed down at her daughter.
"She's perfect," Paige said, quietly, smiling happily at Nick, who was staring at Pax with a stunned look on his face.
"Yes, she is," Nick agreed, brushing a finger lightly over the baby's cheek. "Yes, she is."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was nearly midnight when a noise woke her up. Paige came awake, abruptly, blinking in the dim light of the room, confused as to what could have disturbed her. Then, she saw Henry standing awkwardly in the doorway, and she smiled.
"Hey," she said, softly, as he came into the room, "what are you still doing here?"
"I wanted to see you and the baby," Henry confessed, his voice quiet. "It seems like every time I tried to come in, earlier, the room was completely full."
"Yeah," Paige said, fondly, "Dave and Julie have been pretty excited to see Pax. I didn't think I was ever going to convince them to go home." Frowning slightly, she added, "How did you manage to sneak past the nurses? They're pretty strict about visiting hours."
"I'm very charming," Henry countered, with a grin, and Paige rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"You're something," she told him, affectionately. "Did you want to hold Pax?"
"Isn't she sleeping?" Henry asked, even as he was drawn to the plastic crib that the baby was lying in. "I don't want to wake her up."
"She'll be up soon, anyway," Paige replied. "She's going to want to eat pretty soon."
As if the mere idea of food had been enough to wake her, Pax opened her eyes, slowly. She looked straight up at him, blinking her bright green eyes as she let out a quiet whimper.
"Give her here," Paige told Henry, who looked dubiously from her to the baby. "She's got one hell of a set of lungs on her; if she doesn't get food when she wants it, she'll scream loud enough to bring down the hospital."
Henry very visibly gulped, staring nervously down at the baby. Then, as carefully as if he was reaching for a live bomb, he picked Pax up. Cradling her against his chest, he made his way slowly to the side of Paige's bed. There was a terrified expression on his face, but he visibly relaxed once he was sitting in the chair beside her bed.
"Do you want to feed her?" Paige asked, and Henry looked at her in confusion.
"Don't you have to-" he started, gesturing vaguely in the direction of her chest, and Paige chuckled.
"I pumped earlier," she explained. "The nurses have her milk in a fridge, and there's a nurse out there that I swear is psychic. She should be here –" When a woman in dark blue scrubs appeared in the doorway, a bottle in her hand, Paige grinned. "Now," she finished. "Good timing," she added, to the woman. "She just woke up."
"Call me if you need any help putting her back to sleep," the woman said, handing Paige the bottle, and then she disappeared.
"Well?" Paige offered, holding the bottle out to Henry, and he took it, hesitantly.
"Are you sure?" he asked, and Paige nodded.
"She looks comfortable with you," she told him, watching as he guided the bottle into Paige's eager mouth. "And, you look pretty comfortable with her," she teased, gently, smiling when he blushed.
"She's beautiful," he murmured, quietly, an awestruck expression on his face as he stared down at the baby. "She's so tiny, and perfect."
"Two minutes, and she's already got you wrapped around her little finger," Paige teased him.
"Just like her mom," Henry shot back, grinning at her. "She looks just like you, Paige."
"She's unbelievable," Paige said, as she beamed at her daughter. "She's really mine."
"She's amazing," Henry told her, an unmistakable note of pride in his voice.
Continued here
